Fred Harteis News Articles - For some, blizzard will put holiday on ice

Fred Harteis News Articles - Denver's snowed-in airport reopened Friday for the first time in two days, but the backlog of flights around the country could take all weekend to clear, and many stranded travelers might not make it home for Christmas.

As planes began taking off again, passengers with long-standing reservations filled most of the outbound flights. That was bad news for those waiting to rebook flights canceled during the storm.

"Unfortunately, this comes down to basic math," said airport spokesman Chuck Cannon. "You've got thousands of people standing in lines, and the airlines do not have thousands of seats."

The departure of a Frontier Airlines flight for Atlanta, Georgia, a few minutes after noon was greeted glumly by Christina Kuroiwa, a Fort Collins, Colorado, woman who had been trying to get to San Jose, California.

"Well, I guess that's good for them, but it really doesn't help me," said Kuroiwa, who had actually gotten on a plane Wednesday, only to sit stuck in the snow on the runway for more than eight hours.

The jam in Denver backed up flights around the country heading into one of the busiest travel times of the year, with 9 million Americans planning to take to the skies during the nine-day Christmas-to-New Year period.

Army Spc. Nicholas Silva curled up on a bench Friday, put his head on his arm and hunkered down for a third night inside Chicago, Illinois' O'Hare Airport. The 20-year-old based at Fort Drum, New York, said he hoped to board a plane home to Aurora, Colorado, on Saturday evening.

"I've slept in worse areas, so this doesn't bug me all that much," said Silva, who spent last Christmas stationed in Iraq and is traveling home for the first time in two years. "I'll be home for Christmas. I can see my family. Does it really matter after that?"

More than 3,000 incoming flights were canceled or diverted from Denver during the 45-hour shutdown. There also were delays in Atlanta because of low visibility, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, because of wind.

Source: Cnn.com

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